In Bloom

I suppose, I should actually post photos of things, if I mention them, right? 

The anatomy of a camera-clicker.

Everything seems to be in bloom in the great Northwest, especially common wild flowers like daisies--seas of daisies, in fact--rose hip, along with things that make you reluctantly ingest Claritin. 

I've been spending copious amounts of time on book publishing this week (accompanied by copious amounts of caffeine...and poor alliteration, evidently). I now dream in italic. (See?)  

So, taking a brief evening walk with my Pentax has been a way to clear my head, note the aesthetics of the everyday, irritate local avian wildlife, and avoid stepping on snakes. (They are not poisonous here, supposedly.) 

And, oh yes, the pictures:

Dead Egg (or a Really Injured One)

Whereas I'm not the first and--hopefully!--not the last to use eggs in photo illustration, I'm probably one of the only fans of rock and heavy-metal music convinced that several album covers could be improved by featuring them. 

Let's take the classics, for instance. ANTHRAX - Fistful of Metal clearly needs an expressive egg, and so does the entire IRON MAIDEN discography. And then, of course, there are the "brutal" genres that could use a bit of whimsy.

Okay, a lot. 

I think you see where I'm going with this brilliant proposal. I just hope you don't expect me to "Photoshop" it!  

Thank You

Dear All,

Publishing a new website dedicated entirely to the visuals I create has been a little daunting (especially in light of not having had a web presence of this nature in quite a while). Yet the number of monthly hits (and unique visitors) has tripled since I've started earlier this year. 

Hopefully, the latter means that you like some of my images and my "blogspeak." 

Whereas I plan to continue sharing--photographically--the simplicity (complexity) of daily life and nature in the Rockies along with travel (mis)adventures, I will also put additional emphasis on illustration and similar types of projects. 

And, of course, suggestions and comments are always appreciated keeping my fragile ego in mind (just kidding!).  

Thank you.

:) 

P.S. YES! I was tempted to eat these raspberries as I photographed them! 

Green

The upside to all this gray in the Rocky Mountains lately has been, well, green.

There is growth everywhere, even on the evergreens, and I see a new kind of wild flowers blooming almost every day that I walk my dog.

Soon things will be truly verdant, and my computer might get a few more sneers from me than usual! :)

Pseudos / Aletheia

Martin Heidegger writes: 

"To twist a thing" is called pseudesthai by the Greeks. The struggle for the unconcealment of beings, aletheia, thus becomes the struggle against the pseudos, against twisting and distortion. But the essence of struggle implies that the one who struggles becomes dependent on his opponent, whether he conquers him or is defeated by him.
So because the struggle against untruth is a struggle against the pseudos, then the struggle for truth, in contrast to the pseudos against which one is struggling, becomes the struggle for the a-pseudes, the undistorted, the untwisted.

Introduction to Metaphysics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), 205.

The Littlest Drummer

One of the best things about living in the middle-of-nowhere amidst the Rocky Mountains is the fact that you're bound to run into some kind of wildlife when you go out in the evening, be it your nightly installment of deer or something less frequently encountered.

The downside is that you have to bring bear spray. (Okay, technically, you should always carry bear spray if you're out and about in wooded areas.) 

Walking the dogs up on the mountain, I met this little fellow. He wore a Catholic cardinal's biretta and hopped from tree stump to tree stump. The dogs actually allowed me to photograph. This is what I call combining business with pleasure!

"Сяду на пенёк, съем пирожок!"

"Сяду на пенёк, съем пирожок!"

He might be one of the tiniest creatures in the forest, but you should hear the blast beats when he drums!